This invention relates to a novel and improved page turning device utilizable in connection with the turning of pages of music for professional and amateur musicians and of reading material for severely handicapped people or hospitalized people who cannot temporarily use their hands.
It is well appreciated that in performing their art, most musicians are busy with both hands and have problems turning pages of music at the right time. Up until now, the solutions are makeshift solutions at best: in the case of a pianist, another person who can follow the written music or some sort of cue has to sit next to him to turn the page at the right time; in the case of an orchestra, practically half of a section of musicians has to stop playing in order to turn the page for the other half, before being able to resume playing along; in the case of amateur musicians playing some unfamiliar music, they have to stop playing, often at the middle of a musical phase, to turn the page before continuing. The disadvantages of these solutions are that they are either expensive, conspicuous, anaesthetic or particularly unreliable if the pages were not prepared beforehand, for instance with tabs, for sure turnings.
Numerous inventions have been proposed as better solutions to those problems, but up until now, none is considered good enough in terms of versatility, inconspicuousness, and especially, reliability.
Also, as an aid to handicapped people, a page turning device should require only a minimal human action to trigger and make it go by itself through a whole cycle of page turning automatically.
It is therefore the goal of the present invention to provide an improved solution to all the problems aforementioned.